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Diagnostic agreement between the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) and its Clinical Significance Scale
Natalia Calvo1, Fernando Gutiérrez, Miguel Casas
1Psychiatry Department. Hospital Vall d'Hebrón. CIBERSAM, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
Background:
The Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) is composed of a self-report and an interview, the Clinical Significance Scale, but no studies have reported joint findings. This study is the first to examine the diagnostic agreement between the Spanish version of the PDQ-4+ self-report and its corresponding interview.
Method:
The sample comprised 235 psychiatric outpatients who were assessed with both instruments.
Results:
The interview reduced to one half the number of diagnoses provided by self-report (83.4% to 38.3%; mean number of diagnoses 3.29 to .62). Diagnostic agreement was between fair and moderate (mean kappa .45 for PDQ-4+ total score).
Conclusions:
Findings suggest the utility of jointly administering the PDQ-4+ and its Clinical Significance Scale to screen for the presence or absence of personality disorders (PDs). Modifications in the diagnostic cut-offs for individual PDs and the PDQ-4+ total score may improve the efficacy of the instrument.
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